Prior to undertaking any home renovation we recommend home owners first have an energy audit peformed on their home.

Energy audits are invaluable to home owners when performed by an accredited, independent professional. We had an energy audit performed on our home last fall. Many local utilities offer them for free.

The energy auditor took just over 2 hours inside and outside our home. He explained what he was doing, why, etc. The energy audit report we received was invaluable on many fronts. It provided an overall rating for our home's energy efficiency, a comparative rating for other similar homes, numerous general energy conservation tips for the home and specific recommendations for our home.

There were charts, graphs and the recommendations specific to our home indicated the relative benefits of each recommendation. What also made the report of value to us was that it was not performed by a company who also just happened to provide services to implement the recommendations, i.e. the independence factor.

We couldn't find an actual copy of an energy audit report for a home on the internet so we ended up writing several articles about our home energy audit on the ECOENERGY page of our home's web site if folks are interested.

We have undertaken many, but not all of the recommendations contained in the report we received. We are still investigating both solar water heating as well as solar air heating.

We highly recommend any home owner of any age of house to undertake a home energy audit by an accredited independent professional so they know exactly how bad or how good their home is regarding energy efficiency and so they have facts upon which to base their decisions on which home renovation and/or energy conservation measures, especially any which may cost any amount of money, to undertake this fall and beyond.

Dan
DailyHomeRenoTips.com

Renewable energy is great. However, for the average Joe Homeowner it is not yet financially viable.

More effort should, in my opinion (and yes I am biases as I am a home owner) to the demand side of the energy equation.

For example, we had a home energy audit last fall on our 21 year old bungalow and leared a treamendous amount about energy conservation in general and where we were wasting energy in our speicifc home.

Many local utilities offer them for free. Even at around $350 (which is what we paid for a 2 hour assessment) it was worth it. We even wrote about the report we received on the ECOENERGY page of our home web site.

Yes, for those with deep pockets, solar energy has none of the down side of energy generated from the consumption of any non-renewable resource (coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear). However, for the average home owner, it is far easier and less exspensive on first focusing on reducing the energy consumption in their home.

Dan
DailyHomeRenoTips.com